nicholas@deadanddyingretail.com
Last Updated: 4-27-2015
Uniontown- 99 Mathews Drive
- Converted to regular Kmart in early 2015
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| Photos by Mike Kalasnik |
Hanover- 400 Eisenhower Drive
- Opened in February 1995
- Closed in August 2004
- Currently The Home Depot and Bon-Ton.
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| Bing Maps imagery |
Moon Township- 2000 Scott Boulevard
- Opened November 1994
- Closed July 2013
- Land purchased for a possible regional headquarters by Chevron
Photos from the final days open
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| Photos by Nicholas Eckhart |
Photos from January 2013
How ironic! I was just at this location last year. My cousin lives in Hanover. He said there was a Super K in town, we drove by and it was so obvious. Theres also an abandon Lowes across the street.
ReplyDeleteKmart sold a Bunch of there better stores to Sears and Home Depot that generated the cash so they could eventualy purchase Sears.
ReplyDeleteThe current Big Kmart store located at 1180 Walnut Bottom Rd., Carlisle, PA opened in 1997 and was supposed to be converted into a Super Kmart at some point, but the conversion never happened. There's a large grassy area to the right of Kmart's entrance that separates it from the rest of the shopping plaza that it's in, which was set aside for the future grocery department. The parking lot is also ridiculously huge. Here's a photo of this store and more info on it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/62355920@N00/6929032266/
ReplyDeleteSeeing this makes me wonder how many other late 90's Big Kmart stores were built specifically with the intention of being converted into Super Kmarts one day. The late 90's built Jamestown, NY store is a similar scenario to the Carlisle Kmart, with a smaller grassy area to the left of that store, but right next to the Jamestown Kmart, in the same plaza, is a huge Wegmans built right around the same time the Kmart was built in the late 90's, which makes me think there was never an intention for that store to become a Super Kmart, unless Kmart scrapped those plans when Wegmans showed interest in the site.
I would say that in the late 1990s Kmart thought the Super Kmart concept would be their future. Kmart wanted Supercenters in areas with little or no Walmart Supercenter stores. They did have a Super Kmart in nearby Hanover, PA. I wonder why they did not just build those stores as Super Kmart in the first place.
DeleteHere is something I created about those stores. Let me know if it seems about right.
Deletehttp://deadanddyingretail.blogspot.com/p/1990s-big-kmart-construction-conversion.html
Looks good to me! I'll keep my eye out for more of these stores and let you know if I find any more.
DeleteI will look for some too. I am kind of far behind at updating some posts, location lists, and maps. I have not even posted the planned Super Kmart stores in New Mexico you told me about yet. I also am overhauling the Former Super Kmart map I made under the Maps tab at the top of this page to include more information about each store such as opening dates. That is all on top of the weekly posts.
ReplyDeleteI will look for some too. I am kind of far behind at updating some posts, location lists, and maps. I have not even posted the planned Super Kmart stores in New Mexico you told me about yet. I also am overhauling the Former Super Kmart map I made under the Maps tab at the top of this page to include more information about each store such as opening dates. That is all on top of the weekly posts.
ReplyDeleteI worked for the Super Kmart in Hanover back around when they had the grand opening. It was obvious from the beginning that upper management (corporate) was using it as a tax write off. They kept the old Kmart in the Hanover mall for storage for years. Back and forth between there and the new Super K for inventory was a near daily task. They would also rent tons of storage trailers for outside behind the Super K for more merchandise. They had so much merchandise it was absolutely insane how much they would pay for it to sit in trailers. Stockroom full, upstairs stockroom full, trailers full out back, and an old vacant store full of stock. Unbelievable? Yea, well try spending over $300 to get a single skid of styrofoam plates shipped in special on a Sunday. They did stuff like that all the time. It was obvious this store was just for some type of accounting / tax fraud, they never once tried to make a profit.
ReplyDeleteThe Kmart with K-Fresh inside (former Super Kmart) in Uniontown, PA is closing down. Other Kmarts in the state of Pennslyvania will remain open, but the former Super K in Uniontown, Pennsylvania is going a sad goodbye.
ReplyDelete